Restoration of car journal brasses



Jan. 24, 1939. w. T. BlssELL r Al. 2,145,022

RESTORATION OF VCAR JOURNAL BRASSES -Filed June l, 1956 /1 Trop/vf V5 Patented Jan. 24, 1939 UNITED STATES 'PATENT OFFICE RESTORATION OF CAR JOURNAL BRASSES Application June 1, 1936, Serial No. 82,858

4 Claims.

This invention relates to railway journals and particularly to the brasses commonlyemployed. The invention has for a primary object the prevention of the tremendous loss now occasioned 5 by the requirement for removing and discarding these brasses in which the babbitt has ilowed at its outer edges.

In order to give a better understanding of the invention, it is to be recalled that the ordinary practice in lubricating the journals of railway cars is to employ a waste packing, bearing resiliently against the under side of the journal and serving as a wick to feed oil from the lower part of the box carrying the waste to the journal. The oil carried by the waste to the under side of the journal is carried around by the revolving journal to bring the oil up under the brass on the upper side of the journ-al which carries the load. It is to be remembered that the car will be moving part of the time in one direction and at other times in the opposite direction so that the oil is required to be fed from the waste around the journal in either direction of movement.

The brasses commonly employed bear over but a fraction of the upper part of the journal. These brasses have an under lining of Babbitt metal or other suitable metal of like nature. It is now a requirement universally followed that when this babbitt becomes compressed and is caused to flow around under the brass under the pressure of the load so that the babbitt actually extends below the under edges of the brass, to remove the brasses in such condition from the journal boxes and substitute in their place new brasses. It generally occurs that these brasses removed have been worn in until there is a substantially complete bearing surface entirely therearound against the journ-al but still permitting a thinlubricant film to enter thereunder and that this bearing surface is perfectly smooth and in an ideal condition for further use, but by reason of the extension of the Babbitt metal around under the brass edges, the journal will run hot by reason of inability of the oil to be properly cooled as will hereinafter more fully be described.

It is a further important object of our invention to provide a very simple remedy which may be applied directly to the used brasses so that they may be returned to use in a better condition than they were when originally applied to the journal.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those versed in the art in the following description of lil our invention which is illustrated more or less diagrammatically in the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic vertical longitudinal section through a journal box;

Fig. 2, a transverse vertical section on the line 2 2 of the journal and its brass showing the brass in the condition as newly applied;

Fig. 3, a similar section showing the condition of the brass after considerable use;

Fig. 4, a bottom plan View of the used brass; and

Fig. 5, a vertical section through the vjournal and brass on a line similar to line 2 2 in Fig. 1, on an enlarged scale, showing the used brass in a restored condition.

Like characters of reference indicate like parts throughout the several views in the drawing.

The diagrammatic representation of the journal box is that of a standard arrangement wherein the journal I extends into the customary box II to have a packing of waste I2 saturated in oil carried under the journal and reaching around on the sides to some such elevation as indicated by the dash line I3, Fig. 1. The brass I4 is carried within the box I I in the regular manner with the wedge I5 thereabove on which the boxr II bears to carry the load.

When the brass I4 is initially applied to the journal I Il in its new condition, the babbitt lining I6 rests on the journal only at the center or crown of the brass so that the babbit initially has but a very small area of contact along the upper side of the journal I0. It is intended that the babbitt I6 will be brought into conformity with the curvature of the. journal I0 through pressure and wear by actual usage under load.

Upon suiiicient usage, the babbitt I6 will be changed in shape as to its under contour until it does come down normally into bearing contact with the upper side of the journal I0 entirely around its under surface. When the babbitt has reached such a condi-tion, the bearing will bein an ideal condition where each unit area of the babbitt carries its unit load. In this condition, the bearingl would normally run cool were it not for a factor which is introduced by this practice of wearing in the bearing. It is commonly known that the new brass in the condition as shown in Fig. 2 will usually run hotter than will the brass when the babbitt I B is worn in to approach its full bearing surface.

The limiting factor above indicated is introduced when the babbitt I5, Fig. 3, is so compressed under the load after suflicient usage to bring the babbitt into full bearing contact with the journal I0 as will cause the babbitt to actu- -ally flow out on either under edge of the brass I4 to give the overlapping lips I1. Normally the direction of movement of the car will cause an equal size lip II to appear on each side of the brass I4 but this of course depends upon the law of averages and should the car have been moved continuously or mainly in one direction, then of course the lip will appear on the one side toward which the journal revolves. When this lip Il is formed, the oil carri-ed up around the surface of the journal I0 from the waste I2 comes in contact with this lip I1 at its juncture with the journal surface. Some of the oil will normally be carried around under the babbitt I6 to provide normal lubrication but the lip II will serve as a drip collecting member into which the surplus oil will iiow and be collected to drop therefrom under the influence of gravity. This dropping oil will strike the journal I0 on its sides and thereby be immediately carried back up toward the lip I'l again without normally reaching the waste I2. Of course when there is sufficient -accumulation of oil, being the combined oil carried upwardly by the journal Ill mixing with the oil dripping from the lip II, the excess quantity will ow back down around the journ-al I6 to the waste I2. In either event it is to be notedthat the oil is in direct contact with the journal IIJ.

In such a type of bearing, heat is generated by the friction. If this heat is'normally dissipated by the oil, the bearing will operate within a safe range of temperature.

We have discovered that this temperature range may be very effectively controlled particularly as relating to the brasses I4 which have been formed to an ideal bearing surface but which carry the objectionable lips I'I, by providing means for carrying the oil outwardly on the under edge of the brass I4 a sufficient distance to allow the surplus oil to drop clear of the journal I0 onto the waste I2 therebelow without being in contact with the journal I0 on that downward iiow. If this return oil (absorbing the heat from the journal on its upper travel) can be circulated through the waste I2 which is saturated with oil in contact with the wall of the box I, there will be a sufficient dissipation of heat from this returning oil so that the oil upon returning to the journal Ill to be carried upwardly there again to the brass I4 will have been cooled considerably. We nd that this simple method of providing a circulation of oil in the journal box very effectively permits the use of the brass I4 with its babbitt I6 after that babbitt has been brought down to a full bearing area providing this circulation may be maintained.

When the brasses I4 are given their regular inspection and removed from the bo-X I I, they are carefully inspected to determine whether or not the babbitt has formed lips II. If they have, these lips are removed in any suitable manner such as by a cutting tool I8, Fig. 4, without in any way destroying or affecting the bearing surface of the babbitt I 6. VWe particularly want the lips I1 removed to give a lower edge nish to the babbitt IS as indicated in Fig. 5 where this edge I9 is concave from the under side and preferably spaced above the under edge of the brass I4 on each side. The brass thus treated is returned to the same journal I0 from which it was removed so that the bearing surface formed by that journal in that same babbitt may be again utilized with that perfect seat which has been produced. Ordinarily as above indicated, the brasses I4 when in the condition as shown in Fig. 3 are discarded and returned to a plant for re-babbitting while a new brass I4 in the condition as shown in Fig. 2 is put in place requiring the wearing in process again.

After the babbitt I6 in the brass I4 has been fully seated and the lips II removed to give the final edges I9 as shown in Fig, 5, there will be little or scarcely no flow of the babbitt I6 so that the brasses may be utilized for a great length of time. It is to be kept in mind that when the lips I'I are formed there still remains generally a sufficient thickness of babbitt I6 on the brass I4 to permit this further use.

Referring now to Fig. 5, assuming the journal I to be moving counter-clockwise in the direction indicated by the arrow, oil from the waste I2 will be carried upwardly around the right hand side of the journal into contact with the edge I9 of the babbitt I6. Of course there will be sufficient oil to travel on under the babbitt for the required degree of lubrication. The surplus oil will be turned by the edge I9 to flow outwardly under the velocity of the upcoming oil and travel at least to the edge of the brass I4 as indicated by the drops 20. From this edge, the oil will drop clear of the journal back 'to the waste I2 where it Will intermingle with the large volume of oil and thus become reduced in temperature. The box Il is of course down where the movement of the car will tend to pull `the box II through the air sufficiently fast enough to induce a cooling effect.

Therefore it is to be seen that our invention provides for the utilization of the brass when its babbitt has reached its desired degree of bearing surface rather than having to discard the brass at that time as has been the usual practice and start all over again with the wearing in again of a new babbitt surface. It is to be noted that in this newly applied babbitt surface as indicated in Fig. 2, the oil circulation as indicated in Fig. 5 can not be maintained and this factor contributes to the higher temperature operating condition of the bearing in this condition.

A further important reason not above enumerated for removing the lips I'I from the Babbitt metal is to prevent the throwing of the oil from the journal box. When the oil builds up in a mass against the journal under the lips I'I, this thick mass tends to seek a level and it flows horizontally toward the ends of the brass. The oil flowing to the inner end of the brass strikes the fillet on the journal and of course is carried up onto the larger diameter of the journal and from that diameter the oil will travel inwardly to the wheel and be thrown out. By reason of such action, the oil will soon be pumped out of the box with the result that insufficient oil will remain to effect proper lubrication. Therefore the removal of these lips I'I as above indicated prevents this throwing out of the oil as a further important factor.

While we have herein shown and described our invention in the one best form as now known to us, it is obvious that structural variations may be employed such as varying the shape of the under side of the edge I9, without departing from the spirit of the invention and we, therefore, do not desire to be limited to that precise for-m beyond the limitations as may be imposed by the following claims.

We claim:

l. That method of securing a cool running journal brass lined with a softer metal, which consists of initially forming the lining metal face to have a bearing radius exceeding that of its service journal, wearing in the lining metal under load in service on its journal to flow the metal around the brass by load pressure and journal friction until a uniform bearing surface of the lining metal against the journal is reached substantially over the entire area of the metal to leave a thin oil lm clearance only between it and its journal, said wearing in step causing a ow in part at least of the metal beyond the brass edges, removing the brass from the journal, trimming 01T that metal which has overflowed the brass edges to leave lining metal edges directing surplus oil outwardly under the brass away from the journal and replacing the trimmed brass on its service journal on which it was worn 1n.

2. That method of securing a cool running journal brass lined with a softer metal, which consists in placing the brass on a service journal with the lining pressed thereagainst, wearing in the lining metal under load in service on its journal to flow the metal around the brass by load pressure and journal friction until a uniform bearing surface of the lining metal against the journal is reached substantially over the entire area of the metal to leave a thin oil lm clearance only therebetween, said wearing in step causing a ow in part at least of the metal beyond the brass edges, removing the brass from the journal, trimming off that metal which has overiiowed the brass edges, and replacing the trimmed brass on its journal on which it was worn in.

3. That method of restoring a used lined brass for a railroad car axle journal, which consists of pulling a brass from the car journal after having served to carry loads in service for a period sufiicient to cause the brass lining to flow along the brass edges, trimming oil the flowed lining along the brass edge, and immediately placing the trimmed brass back on the saine journal from which it was taken for subsequent use thereon.

e. That method of restoring a used lined brass for a railroad car axle journal which consists of lifting the journal box about a journal whose brass has been subjected to service load conditions over a, period of time, pulling out the brass for inspection as to flow of lining along the brass edges, trimming off the objectionable flowed lining at the brass edge, replacing the trimmed brass on said journal, and dropping said box to restore said trimmed brass for further service on its original car journal on which it was worn in.

WILLIAM T. BISSELL. THOMAS W. PO'I'I'ER. 

